Class blogs - personalise your blog, a sequence of settings May 5, 2008
Posted by Al Upton in miniLegends.Tags: blog, blogging, Edublogs, elearning, learning, miniLegends, settings, student directed, student initiated, tutorial, web2.0
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This post is designed to be followed by the miniLegends to modify their own blogs.
PLEASE NOTE - with the 2008 framework many of the settings below can only be carried out by an administrator. Students will only be allowed to be editors at the most.
If it’s of use to anyone else, then … that’s added value 
In many ways it follows on from this post spurred on by Sue Waters in The Edublogger.
[BTW this system works well for our class because we become 'experts' in different things then we teach others who also become experts and so on it goes. We won't do this all in one lesson (!) but the resource is here for us to return to as we choose. Feel free to use it as you choose.]
PLEASE NOTE … I find it empowering for my Year 3s to be involved in establishing their own blogs. But it’s the sense of belonging, the emerging and ongoing conversations, the networking and collaboration, the publishing and sharing, the reading and responding, the questioning and thinking, the pride and fun … of learning … that really matters.
****** Minis, please look for the coloured balls ******
Well done everyone! You’ve signed up with Edublogs [or Learnerblogs for students not in South Australian government schools] , received an email to activate your blog then forwarded that email to me. I’ve activated your blog, named your blog (eg Boris’ Blog 08 - you can change this), changed the password Edublogs gave you with your secret new one, made it so it says “Hi Boris” - or whatever your name is.
(This is done in ‘Users’>’Your Profile’)>type in Boris in nickname>’click ‘Update Profile’>select ‘Boris’ in ‘Display name publicly as’>’Update Profile’)
… and that’s about it.
NOW ITS ALL UP TO YOU - not really … we’ll do this together 
Here are some steps for you to go through at your own pace.
*** login ***
On your dashboard look under ‘Welcome to Edublogs’ for some links
******
‘Write a post’ means write a new post …. This is what you have begun 
This was the link you clicked for your first post.
You then uploaded images that were resized with ‘Microsoft Office Picture Maker’ or PIXresizer
‘Browse’ for your picture
Type in a title … click ‘Upload’
Click where you want the image to go … click ‘Send to Editor”
Leave this for now but you will be using it often.
Remember to add a few Tags at the bottom of your posts - these are keywords (miniLegends, learning, sport, games, fun, reading ….) tell other people what’s in your post
******
‘Write a page’ means write a new page
The above is mostly how blogging is done in Edublogs. Using your blogs to publish your learning and connect with others is the real (and fun) challenge
******
Now for the settings
*** Upload a blog avatar - this will appear in the sidebar of your blog
select a ‘real’ or filtered picture ***
Click this link then … ‘Browse’>open the image you want>’Upload Image’
You might now have to drag the handles on your picture so it fits and click ‘Crop Image’
*** Upload a user avatar - this will appear next to your comments
select a ‘real’ or filtered picture ***
Click this link then … ‘Browse’>open the image you want>’Upload Image’
You might now have to drag the handles on your picture so it fits and click ‘Crop Image’ then save your changes.
*** Click ‘Update your profile or change your password’ (your name and password have been changed as outlined at the top of this post) Please do not alter your password. Please add your ‘Website:’ eg http://borisk.edublogs.org/ … you could even copy and paste this but change borisk to your username ***
You might also like to add something ‘About Yourself’ … no identifying information please!
Don’t forget to click ‘Update Profile’
*** ‘Change your site’s look and feel’ … now this is fun .. you get to select from so many different blog themes (’looks’ and ‘feels’) … the blog becomes more and more YOURS! ***
There are so many to choose from. Explore them … click to activate … [to view your blog, right-mouse-click the 'View site >>' link at the top of your page, open in a new tab or window ... this can be refreshed (F5) as you look at the different themes.]
We chose Regulus because it has ‘Widgets’ and ‘Current Theme Options’ … many themes will but check for them please.
Explore options and save in ‘Current theme Options’ but please do not include your email address.
‘Widgets’ and ‘Current Theme Options’ can be found next to ‘Presentation’>’Themes’
*** Please drag the following ‘Available Widgets’ into the ‘Sidebar’ box above them
‘Avatar’, ‘Meta’, ‘Recent Comments’, ‘Links’, ‘Email Subscription’, ‘Tag Cloud’, ‘Text 1′ (type … Hi I’m a miniLegend which means I’m a Year 3 student in Al Upton’s class at Glenelg Primary School, South Australia. We use blogs, computer games and Quest Atlantis in our learning. It’s fun. … ***
or write something like that - copy/paste if you want then click the little x to close the window)
You might then like to drag ‘Text 1′ up between ‘Avatar’ and ‘Meta’ … > ‘Save Changes’
***
Now we work our way along the tabs to a few extra ones to get us started
‘Comments’>’Comments’
This is where you can Edit, Delete, Approve/Unapprove or Spam comments.
Leave this for now .. we will come back to it later or as needed.
‘Blogroll’>’Manage Blogroll’ .. a blog roll is a list of links and blogs you like to read and connect with. It helps visitors to your blog know who and what you are interested in. It provides them with a springboard for their further reading and commenting.
*** ‘Blogroll’>’Add Link’ … this is how you add people to your list of blogs to be shown on your sidebar.
*** Please add
‘Name:’> minilegends 08
‘Address:’> ‘http://alupton.edublogs.org/
‘Description:’ A Year 3 class and resource blog by Al Upton and the miniLegends ***
Copy/paste into your own dashboard (’Blogroll’>’Add Link’) if you want
‘Plugins’>’Plugins’>’Activate’ (if you want it) or ‘Deactivate’ (if you don’t want it)
*** Please activate all but one plugin … it’s called ‘Edublogs.org users only’ … we want to make our blog open to bloggers who might not be registered and logged in users of Edublogs ***
***
‘Options’>’General’
*** You can change your ‘Blog title:’ but please keep your name at the front eg ‘Alphonso’s Coolest Blog’ … capitals for titles please.
You can change your ‘Tagline:’ (the writing you see under your title in the header) eg ‘My Learning and Fun - All in One!’
You can change the time … ‘Times in the blog should differ by:’ .. in South Australia change this to 10.5 Here are the world time zones We are in Adelaide, the second one down ***
Don’t forget to ‘Update Options’
‘Options’>’Writing’
*** In a post you will have already added ‘miniLegends’ as a category
When you managed your first post, ” *** Please type in the word miniLegends and click ‘Add’ at the top right hand box called ‘Categories’ ***”
Change the ‘Default post category:’ … click the dropbox and choose ‘miniLegends’
Change the ‘Default link category:’ … click the dropbox and choose ‘miniLegends’ ***
‘Options’>’Discussion’
*** Uncheck (make it blank - no tick) the bottom option
‘Comment author must have a previously approved comment’
It should look like the following picture. ***
Click to enlarge, then back button to return here.
******
Well that will do for the pictorial for now … this is just a start … now it’s on with our learning. Because we aim to be student centered and student directed who knows what directions we will take? Exciting times ahead
Add to Diigo
Thanks for the great directions! I’m new to blogging so this is not only useful for teaching but also new bloggers anywhere!
Thank you for a great set of directions! I will direct my students to this when they start their qwn blogs!
Thanks Al,
I introduced blogging to a small group of interested teachers last week. We started small with Classroom 2.0 to get the feel of being online. The next step would be setting up their own blog when they felt ready. I will pass this on to them, (oh, and I’ll bookmark it for me too!)
Cheers,
Helen
Hi Al
Great instructions!
Can you give info about setting up the option to add comments to each page please?
Cheers
Anne-Marie